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For this project, you will use a variety of sources to write a paper answering a research question on a complex topic. The objectives of this project are to help you develop or reinforce your ability to incorporate a variety of appropriate sources into an essay that contributes to a complex conversation,
- write a thesis statement that attempts to distinguish your ideas from a number of perspectives,
- find examples and other types of evidence to support a claim,
- identify both your own and others’ biases with regard to the topic,
- locate appropriate sources, and
- create references correctly.
One question you may have is how the Researched Argument will differ from the Academic Essay assigned in CORE 101. As the name implies, the Researched Argument will require you to locate and incorporate multiple sources in order to respond to others’ argument and to build your own. Broadly speaking, a Researched Argument is longer and less based on personal opinion and common knowledge. In addition, it may require the use of sources that are more technical or sophisticated than the sources used in the Academic Essay. Moreover, instead of being a report on a topic, the Researched Argument is a contribution to a conversation about that topic. In other words, a Researched Argument adds something to an ongoing discussion, instead of simply repeating information that you have obtained from other sources.
Many of the skills that you will need to complete the Researched Argument have been discussed in the section on the Research Process. This overlap is deliberate; from the beginning of the research process you have to be familiar with certain concepts so that you can write about them as you go along. In some cases, therefore, you will be referred back to the Research Process to review concepts relevant for both that project and the Researched Argument. You also will be referred back to concepts and skills that you worked with in CORE 101 that continue to be relevant in CORE 102 (and will continue to be relevant in CORE 201 and 202 as well).
Objective I. Incorporate a variety of appropriate sources into an essay that contributes to a complex conversation.
At a university, you take courses in many different departments—in fact, in many different colleges, from COBE to CVPA. With courses taught in so many different departments and colleges, it may be natural to fall into the habit of looking at assignments in isolation from other assignments. It also may be natural to fall into the habit of looking at assignments as being isolated from the world at large.
In the case of the researched argument, you may find yourself unconsciously assuming that all you need to do is locate some sources that back up your opinion, document them, and turn in your report. But a well-constructed argument happens in the context of a conversation. A well-constructed argument both presents the existing discussion about a topic and asserts the writer’s opinion within the context of that